Sense Of Wonder Night Reveals Featured Indie Games

Organizers for Japan's Sense of Wonder Night (SOWN) unveiled their tally of ten innovative indie games and prototypes appearing at this September's Tokyo Game Show presentation. Now in its second year, SOWN seeks to champion experimental and creative game design ideas, heighten awareness of games that "give people a sense of wonder", create future opportunities for developers creating experimental games, and help birth new domains in the game industry. Last year's inaugural event received over 67 entries, 11 of which were presented to an audience of more than 500 people from 22 countries and regions. Those featured independent titles included The Unfinished Swan, PixelJunk Eden, The Misadventures Of P.B. Winterbottom, and Moon Stories. The full list of titles selected for presentation at SOWN -- including Transcend (pictured), Zach Aikman's previously unannounced follow-up to IGF-winning freeware music game Synaesthete -- with links to playable versions, videos, and/or developer sites, follows: - Ball Carry by Takuya Ono (Japan) - ecolpit by misi (Japan) / Test Trailer - Hazard — The Journey Of Life by Alexander Bruce (Australia) / Developer Site - His and Her Disconnected Conversations by Himo (Japan) / Developer Site - Incompatible BLOCK by Jun Fujiki (Japan) / Developer Site - para rail by Kuniaki Watanabe and Onitama (ZENER WORKS Inc./Team OniKu) (Japan) / Developer Site - Shadow Physics by Enemy Airship (United States) / Demonstration Video - Swarm Racer 3000 by Joseph White (Lexaloffle Games) (Japan) / Test Trailer - Transcend by Zach Aikman (Fishbeat) (United States) / Developer Site - You Only Live Once by Marcus Richert (Sweden) / Developer Site Inspired by Game Developers Conference's Experimental Gameplay Workshop format, SOWN will provide each developer a chance to explain their project and field questions for around ten minutes. SOWN's screening committee includes famed dojin developer Kenta Cho (Blast Works), IGF chairman and Gamasutra publisher Simon Carless, Enterbrain producer Kenji Sugiuchi (Maker Series), Namco Bandai Games's Keita Takahashi (Noby Noby Boy, Katamari Damacy), Vector's Takashi Katayama, and games journalist and IGDA Japan head Kiyoshi Shin. SOWN 2009 will take place on September 25th, from 5:00 to 7:30 PM at the International Conference Halls in Makuhari Messe. You can find more information on the event at the Tokyo Game Show 2009 site.